


Your Guide to the Wasteland Baby Series

by Heavydirtys0ul, things-we-used-tc-share (Heavydirtys0ul)



Series: Wasteland, Baby! [35]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alright here we are, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2020-10-29 08:09:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20793425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavydirtys0ul/pseuds/Heavydirtys0ul, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavydirtys0ul/pseuds/things-we-used-tc-share
Summary: The lore guide and some little sketches.





	1. The Witches

** What is a Witch? **

In this series a Witch is an individual who is half-Demon, Witches are created as offspring between Demons and Humans (generally) and are essentially granted immortality and powers that are due to the effect of having Demon's blood in your veins. Witches can pro-create with each other however the further down the family tree we go, the less Human the Witch becomes. This isn't a bad thing, it's simply a case of Demon blood being more powerful than Human's, they don't act, think or feel more like a Demon when this occurs, actually they mostly just become more of their own species instead of just "Half Human" or "Half Demon,"

**Covens**

Very few Witches live in solitary and are incredibly social. Any Witch may join a coven of their choosing and it essentially becomes a family from there, they raise children in groups and each person has a role within the community (For example, Emile is the doctor of his coven). Any Witch may leave a coven if they wish too and nothing prevents them from doing so. The main purpose is protect each other and share duties, workloads, as well as just generally socialise and enjoy each other's company. 

** Witches' Marks **

Each Witch is given an individual mark that is attributed by their demonic heritage. If you think in Human terms how siblings inherit similar bone structures, eye shape etc, this applies to all children in the bloodline of a demonic parent. So Virgil and Remy both have horns because their demonic ancestor is the same Demon which isn't actually listed in the fic but I like to joke that it's Asmodeus, the demon of Lust and that's why Remy is, as quoted from the book "Like a bitch in heat,". However the couplings of different demons bloodlines can cause changes in a Witches' mark (in siblings), hence why Remy has smaller horns and cats ears, whilst Virgil has huge rams horns. 

Basically, Virgil got more of his father's demonic heritage, whereas Remy got more of his mother's, which is why he can turn into a cat so easily- it's a part of his soul- but Virgil didn't get any of the feline attributes. 

That is also to say that outside of biological siblings Witches can have similar or even the same marks if one inherits more of a demon's bloodline and half way across the world another Witch also inherits the same bloodline. Demons are busy, busy little creatures and leave a lot of offspring (Witches) lying around. 

** _Siren's Marks_ **

Sirens are technically part Witch, part Fae, because they inherit Demon's blood; specifically that of an incubi or succubi. However, Siren's marks tend to always be the same, gills, scales, sometimes webbed feet or hands. This is mostly because water Faeries have very specific attributes for their survival, and is just as powerful as Demon blood so for the most part Sirens simply inherit whichever features are implicit for them to survive in their natural habitat. The difference, apart from their voice, from average Water Faeries is that they can manipulate their own features, both externally and internally at will, and is the most important feature of a Siren. 

**Relationships**

Most of the magical communities view relationships the same. It's not unheard of for Witches to be monogamous but it is much more likely for them to be polyamorous. This mostly comes down to the fact that spending forever with one person is a nice idea until you're into your second century and realise forever is going to be a very, _very_ long time. If you think Roman and Virgil butt heads after a decade after being with each other, give it another nine and see how well they'd be doing by themselves.

Loving people comes very easily for Witches, but they are also notoriously short-tempered; they realised that polyamory gave each individual a little bit more space to live their lives when they needed to. Most Witches are raised in groups so it means that the children always have more than two parents should something happen to one, there would always be support.

In the case of Remy and Virgil, Virgil's parents hadn't joined a coven until just after Remy was born, they'd been very intent on raising the two themselves as Humans do, but when Virgil and Remy's father left and their mother became depressed this led to Virgil raising Remy alone despite being a child himself. As he'd been raised in monogamous family dynamic, Virgil had been extremely hesitant to let the rest of the coven anywhere near Remy. As years passed he became more open to letting other people influence Remy's upbringing but still had the main impact on his brother's life. 

**Witches, rulers, classifications of magical powers.**

Unlike Faeries, Witches don't have an overall ruler such as a monarchy or court. Each Coven mostly determines laws between them, however there are some common ones such as the generic 'do not kill, steal, harm one another (maliciously, play fighting is generally allowed)," 

Most Witches tend to look to the Fae for higher council. Covens are almost always based in forests that are owned by Faeries, and tend to seek refuge with Spring or Autumn Fae because they offer protections to all magical creatures that simply wish to live in peace. 

Despite this some Witches are naturally more powerful than others. Remy, for example, is a Pyrokenetic which is one of the higher "classifications," of power, whereas Virgil convenes with Weather Spirits (In Work Song, it's mentioned that the wind speaks to him; Weather Spirits control the wind, they are the voices in the wind and are generally not corporeal, nor do they speak individually but more as a _hive mind_), this is one of the highest classifications of power when used correctly because he literally controls a part of the world that something other than Witches generally control. 

If the coven does not have a leader, then in times of crisis the duty of protection falls to the most powerful Witch present. In the case of Virgil's coven that would be _Virgil_ but only if the leader is not present.

Doctors are considered one of the most important people in a coven as it's a very hard skill to learn and not one that comes completely naturally, it requires studying and learning and a lot of patience and power to understand the biology of many different creatures and then, how to treat them. 

_ **Witches and Faeries** _

Witches have one main religion as mentioned in "Take me to Church" and that is pantheism. Pantheism is the belief that God and nature are one and the same, but for Witches this is essentially a worship of woodland Fae. _Especially_ Spring Fae. Witches who live in forests will often leave offerings to the Faeries; jars of honey, bottles with sweet drinks such as sweet milk and flowers. This is an expressions of gratitude for not only their lives but the shelter that has been extended to them. Witches also tend to offer themselves as a form of gift and if the Faery or multiple Faeries take a liking to him/her/them, they will take them back to the Faery realm with them and keep them. Usually they're kept as companionship but it really depends on the type of relationship the participating parties want which is often declared upon first contact. 

Spring Faeries tend to view Witches as a potential romantic partner more than any other type of Fae, although they know and understand there is a hierarchy in place they are also of belief all life is sacred. Summer and Autumn Fae usually keep Witches as pets, and this can be sexual, platonic or basically like having a servant. Winter Fae tend to hunt any and all living creatures for sport, but more on that in the Fae lore section.

Witch children that are first in their bloodline, so birthed directly from a Human and Demon parent, were often left as offerings to the Fae in the forest; this was a practise that died out as late as the 2010's in America, and in more religious countries is still practised today. If the child is lucky they would be found by a Spring or Autumn Faery who would either raise the child or take them to a coven to be raised, but if found by the Winter Fae would often be used as food. The Summer Fae are an unfortunate medium in which they would often keep the child and simply raise them to be a servant. 

This is also how they found Emile. Abandoned in the forest, and assumedly the first of his particular bloodline in this area. 

\--

If you have any questions or anything else you want to know about Witches, or any of the creatures in the series, please leave a comment below! I can edit this and include your questions about other creatures in their specific section! 


	2. Emile, Patton + A Little On Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please, PLEASE read the series first, this DOES contain spoilers!

_ **Emile** _

Within the series itself, I loosely discussed the fact that Emile may or may not be entirely a Witch, despite his mark. Initially, I was going to have Emile be confirmed as partially a Weather Spirit, a fate which was also going to be Patton's. However, I felt it didn't quite fit with Emile as he was mostly entered around knowledge and healing, whilst the idea of a Weather Spirit was a type of rarely corporeal creature which controlled the weather in communication to the earth. Weather Spirits are mentioned in the one shot concerning Virgil and Remy's background, as it's revealed that the reason Virgil can control the rain and air so well is because he learned how to communicate with them: which I felt would be nice to work with Emile. However, when it got around to actually writing Emile I felt his power so easily centred around knowledge that it seemed almost effortless to make him partially Fae, particularly partially an Autumn Faery. 

You may also notice that in Emile and Roman's story, Emile does not learn how to speak until much later than other children, he doesn't even make the sort of noises one would expect a child to make, this isn't because he can't talk, it's because he doesn't _need_ too. He can sense Roman's emotions, the man he considers his father, and react accordingly, and in turn Roman can read his mannerisms to understand what he means because he is naturally an _emotional_ person. He easily reads in three different languages, he just doesn't really find the need to speak until he starts participating in his education, something I didn't really clarify because I became very focused on the Emile/Remy storyline. 

The decision to make Emile partially Fae came mostly from the fact that Roman was connected too him, even if not by birthright, his soul would always be a little Fae due to the fact he was raised with Roman's story and language the same way a Fae child might. Emotionally, he always considered himself to be Fae the same way a human child of different cultures would consider themselves part of that culture they were raised in. 

His intuition for knowledge is genuinely a hunger too, it's why he reads so much, and how he knows so much as a child: Roman didn't tell him he had to read, he just started hoarding books and couldn't stop. The way his mind works would insinuate that his mind, at least, is partially non-witch. He stores information to the point where his memory is almost eidetic, and can understand things that takes some Spring Faeries years to memorise. Dee, who is gifted the world's knowledge to the point it drives him to essentially tie his own tongue when it comes to the truth, struggles with a lot of this knowledge, but Emile understands it quite easily. 

And although Emile suspects, because he knows his own mind enough to know that he baffles even Roman, he has not felt the urge to take apart his own DNA to understand. This is mostly because he has no desire to know, as Roman states he is very happy with the family that he's made, that he's been brought into, and although knowledge is important too him, he has also seen what an obsession for seeking knowledge can do especially once Dee is brought into his life. Roman is his father as far as he's concerned and makes no move to seek out his biological parents, after all he was left in that forest for a reason. 

_ **Patton** _

Patton was such an interesting character to write, because from the start I knew he wasn't going to be human. I was the only one who decided that and it was very hard to keep my mouth shut about it, peppering in here and there in the series "Hey! This character isn't human". It wasn't until after I introduced Remy that I had decided exactly what Patton was going to be. So how did I come up with the idea for The King of The Seasons?

Well, the name is a little bit misleading, Patton is not just a woodland Faery, he's an elemental Faery, he controls the wind, the fire, the water _and_ the earth. The elementals are technically not Faeries, we'll start there; the elementals are everything that makes up the world, as Emile explains in the lead up to the reveal of who Patton is, the elementals were the first time the old gods took corporeal forms and created the seasons, or the first Faeries. With this, they also created every other magical creature, except for Sirens who would come along later in the evolutionary line. But Sprites, Giants, Spirits, etc, were all created and made over the span of seven days, (sounds familiar huh? More on that in another chapter). The full story of the King as the actual story Roman told will come along in the one-shots _"The Major Arcana"_.

But he is crowned the King of the Seasons because the seasons have a large part to play in how the rest of the world works, it is the seasonal Fae that co-ordinate with the rest of the Fae to make sure the sun shines in summer and rains in winter, which is what they were created for essentially, to create and maintain. It's also worth noting that not all woodland Fae are seasonal Fae, but again I will come back to this when I discuss the Fae as I have with Witches. 

Patton is Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, but he can hear and communicate with anything that has a soul, not just the forest the way Roman does. 

Initially I was going to also have Patton turn out to be partially a Weather Spirit, as the spirits of the weather are very rarely corporeal, so they're very hard to kill, meaning they are essentially eternal and most that were created at the beginning of everything are still alive today. I'll talk more on Weather Spirits, as well as other creatures that I wanted to include but did not get a chance to write about; this is mostly self indulgent because I created quite a few things and just couldn't find space to talk about them. The idea to have Patton be a Weather Spirit came from a few thoughts I had about other's finding they knew his soul, as Weather Spirits are ever present and sort of just _exist_ it's hard to not come by one, even if you don't know it. The magic is very old, omnipresent and eternal. 

I changed my mind because it felt too underwhelming, but also as I had changed my mind about Emile I didn't really see the point. Which takes me to the next part. 

_ **Fate** _

Fate plays a large part in this story, the idea that your body is not your own but part of a web that writes out the events of your life, and beyond your control. A lot of this book uses metaphors and imagery and those are also things for another chapter, but fate itself is alluded too quite a few times. Patton has flashbacks to a life he hasn't even had yet, remembering in reverse, as well as part of a past life. In the same scene, it's noted that the gods of the natural world have seen this play out so many times, even if it's the first time Patton experiences it. Roman thinks with anguish how Patton has "Become a pawn for the old gods," after he has spent so long running from religion, a thought that makes him uncomfortable, and again a few people not knowing Patton's soul despite never having met him. Lastly, and most prevalently: Remus knows what his job is because he's been told, he knows he has to kill Patton for him to be reborn and he knows it's _explicitly_ Patton. This is a present that has been the future for a lot longer than Patton has been alive. 

Absolutely everything is to do with fate. 

Which is why I initially wanted Emile and Patton to be linked, because fate was supposed to be a large part of the fic, and Emile is the one that teaches and educates Patton about their way of life and takes him into his home, a stranger but not, because their souls are intrinsically tied and somehow Emile knows that. He can _feel_ it. There's a lot of parts in this fic that is entered around people feeling like Patton belongs with them despite being a human. Roman has no reservations falling in love with him and Virgil takes far less time than he should have, it is only really Damian that notes from first instinct that there is something wrong with Patton at all, although Logan (being naturally suspicious) does also suspect at some intervals that Patton may not be entirely human. 

It wasn't an accident that I made four of the main characters elementals. Remy: Fire, Virgil: Air and Water (Storms), Roman: Fire, and then later Logan with Water. Emile has traditionally Earth-based powers, but centres a lot around healing which was also very intentional for completely obvious reasons, because of Remy and also because of his personality. It all essentially came back to fate, which is just foreshadowing for real life in plain terms, they were all going to eventually have to hold Patton back and sort out his destruction, as well as helping him control his powers. 

\--

If anyone has any questions to do with these topics I will reply to your comments and then include any missed tidbits in this text. Thanks for reading!

Upcoming Chapters:

-Fae lore

-Missed creatures and edited cuts. 

-Religious imagery, symbolism and metaphors in the series. (+Why Hozier?)

-A look at the story of the King, writing the lore, and more on why I made Patton the King. 


End file.
